Abstract:

The existing research on the mechanism of LUCC cannot fully illustrate dynamics of land use/cover driven by long-distance interaction in the global context. To fill this gap, a theoretical framework of tele-coupling interpretation is intentionally introduced in this paper. Starting with a general overview of previous studies on the mechanism of LUCC in perspectives of human society development, and followed by the empirical evidence for these mechanisms, this paper proposes an initial framework of tele-coupling interpretation. It is concluded that remote connection, globalization, and urbanization are the three major forms of tele-coupling that have driven LUCC. Specifically, in terms of environmental interactions between long-distance natural systems, climate change and large-scale climate events have cross-regional impacts. For example, they can directly affect vegetation dynamics by changing climate factors such as temperature and precipitation, resulting in the climatic tolerance range of vegetation, which in turn could change the distribution pattern of vegetation, leading to the land use/cover change. For socio-economic interactions between distant human systems, the globalization process may drive the land use/cover change through transmission and feedback of various flows of information, technologies, capital and goods at different levels of administrative spaces. Regarding to urbanization, it could alter the land use/coverage in remote areas directly or indirectly through the process of production factor aggregation. Based on these elaborations, this paper further puts forward the key contents and basic steps of the application of tele-coupling framework in LUCC research. Firstly, a "time-space-event" trinity analysis path of land use/cover change is established, which links the spatio-temporal dynamics of land use/cover with the sequence of events that drive the change. This kind of analysis seeks to use specific social, economic, and natural events to explore the driving forces to land use/cover change. The operational analytical method with five steps is thus proposed for this purpose. Secondly, the distance decay curve method and the event sequence classification method inside and outside the area should be applied for decomposing driving forces to the near-remote land use/cover change. Finally, a comprehensive network-based inter-system study or cross-system synthesis is badly needed to better understand land use/cover change at the regional (global) scale. Cross-system synthesis is the key step to realize the transformation from micro case studies to a macroscopic comprehensive integration, and its primary mission is to clarify the mutual feedback of factor flows between multiple systems and their impact on land use/cover change. In conclusion, the new method is expected to achieve a synchronous explanation of land use/cover change driven by multiple long-distance systems, in an aim to have a holistic and better understanding of the human-nature coupling system at the regional (global) scale.

Key words: tele-coupling, tele-connection, globalization, urbanization, land use/cover change, driving force decomposition, cross-system synthesis